Double Speed
by HikariAmuJackson
Summary: Natsuki is a socially awkward loner with a rich dad. Wally is outgoing and cheerful who doesn't even live with his parents anymore. The connection between the two? They both have secrets and they both have speed.
1. Prolouge

**A/R**

Hello there. I'm Hikari!

You may have noticed that instead of having AN at the top I have AR which stands for Authors Rant because I am feeling creative and to me it feels more appropriate. Anyway, this story is an OC story so if you don't like them this is probably not for you, but I would like it if you gave it a chance anyway. This story also a rework of a past story which I wasn't fully satisfied with so I took a couple weeks to begin the process of revamping it. The first thing I came up with was this, and I personally am very proud of it, so I would appreciate it if you took the time to give me feedback at the end via review. You could also PM me. I approve of PMing. Anyways, to the disclaimer.

**Disclaimer: **Robin looks up from his position hunched over a computer where he's typing incomprehensible codes. "Thankfully, this crazy person doesn't own me and by the way the opposite of comprehensible is really hensible."

Hikari: I am not crazy. I am a fully functioning person who is only slightly on the verge of insanity

Robin: Suuuuuurrrre.

Hikari: If I wasn't slightly crazed then I would not be a writer. Now finish the disclaimer.

Robin: If she doesn't own me she doesn't own the rest of Young Justice and all she owns is her OC.

Hikari: ONTO THE STORYTELLING.

* * *

Prologue

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. "-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Malibu, California

August 1, 2010

23:26 PST

The apartment building was a dump. Vines were crawling up the entire left side of the building, all of the windows were cracked, and

paint was peeling off the wall in large strips that littered the ground around the structure. The air around it reeked of cigarette smoke

and sweat mixed it with a faint hint of blood. Logically, the building should have been abandoned, but judging by the two cloaked

people heading towards it the girl was ready to assume that it wasn't as empty as it looked. The dark haired girl staking out the

building watched at the men approached the building and flashed a card at the two guards standing at the gate. The guards nodded

briefly at them and the cloaked men whisked into the building, barely glancing at the guards. The girl's eyes furrowed as she watched

the men from her vantage point of top of a nearby building. She would have to take out one of the men entering the building, steal his

card and cloak, and hope that the guards wouldn't recognize her with the cloak on to get in, something that did not particularly appeal

to her.

The girl made her way to the edge of the roof as she grabbed her whip, and mentally formulated a plan. She went through the details

of her plan carefully knowing that she only had once chance to get this right. She focused all her attention on the end of the road

making sure that if someone came down the road, she would be the first person to see him or her. The road remained empty for a

couple of minutes before the edge of a black cloak flashed into view and the girl moved into action. Wrapping her whip around the

corner of an opposite building, she swung down from the roof she was on and smashed her feet straight into the chest of the person

who had turned the corner. The person collapsed to the ground with the girl on top of him, but before he could utter a sound the girl

brought her fist heavily down on his head, effectively knocking him out.

The girl rolled off of him and stood up, pulling him back into the shadows before the guard noticed him. She propped him against one of

the buildings lining the road and pulled off his cloak. She ran her hands over it carefully and stopped when she felt the small hole in the

lining of the cloak. The girl slipped her hand into the hole and pulled out an identification card similar to the ones that the previous men

had flashed to the guards. Smiling her herself, she slipped the card back into its hiding place before pulling on the cloak over her rather

unusual outfit.

Her outfit was a teal blue kimono with sleeves and a collar that were edged in black with a black waistband around her hips. Attached

to the waistband was a similarly colored utility belt from which her whip was hanging along with several other pouches that contained

various miscellaneous objects and her iPhone which was wirelessly connected to the teal headphones hanging around her neck.

Underneath she was wearing a pair of black tights that disappeared into a pair of black boots engraved with teal dragonflies. She also

had on a pair of fingerless gloves with the same image of a dragonfly embroidered onto them and black face mask that completely

covered everything except her eyes. However, this strange outfit was easily covered by the large cloak and the hood which hung over

in her face, not only effectively removing the large blue bow on her ponytail from view, but also shadowing her face, so that no one

could recognize her.

She approached the doors to the apartment building cautiously, remembering at the last moment to pull down her face mask as she

reached inside the cloak for the identification card. With shaking hand she flashed the card to the guards who seemed to look at it for

much longer that he looked at the others, before letting her into the building. She glided into the building with a confident air observing

the other 8 cloaked men who were drifting around the tattered remains of what used to be a fairly elegant lobby. At the sight of the

other men the girl began to worry, not knowing what she would do if one of them tried to talk to her. Luckily for her, at that moment,

the leader of the group walked into the room drawing the attention of the people present in the room including the girls.

The man walked calmly to the middle of the room, exuding a cocky, arrogant air that made Dragonfly a bit uneasy. He was wearing an

outfit similar to the rest of the men in the group the only difference being that he was wearing a panther face mask with ears poking

out of his hood. He turned around in a slow circle taking in everybody, before he finally spoke.

"It is nice to see you all here," he murmured lowly, "I expect you wonder why I called you all here and the reason is quite simple. I

want us all to form an alliance." The girl's eyes narrowed at his words and she shuffled a bit closer along with the others, curious as to

what he was blabbering about.

"You see we are some of the most influential crime bosses in Malibu, and the way I see if we all team up in a massive heist; we would

all be set for life."

"How massive are we talking her Panther," one of the men asked.

"Simultaneous bank robberies at all the major banks in Malibu," the Panther said smugly. The 8 people in the room exchanged glances

shock evident on their faces. There was a moment of silence as the bosses processed what he was saying and after a few minutes they

all had devilish grins on their faces that sent shivers down the girls spine.

"Good plan Panther. There's no way the police force can be at all the banks at the same time. We're guaranteed to succeed. I'm

definitely in on this one." The girl bit her lip nervously at the words and she reached into her kimono sleeves underneath the cloak,

pulling out the throwing knives that were strapped to her arms. One by one each of the crime bosses said yes until the girl was the

only one left silent.

"Well, you're the only one left. What do you have to say?" Panther questioned the girl who was fiddling with the clasp on her cloak. She

took a deep breath and pulled her mask back over her face while simultaneously undoing the button on the cloak.

"No," she stated briefly glaring at the crime bosses who took a step back when they realized who was really under the cloak.

"Dragonfly," one of them shouted.

"Get her," growled another.

4 of the crime bosses reached for their guns put before they could draw them 4 of Dragonfly's knives had impaled them in the

shoulder. The knives blinked red a few times, then released an electric shock into the 4 men leaving them unconscious. She then

immediately crouched to the ground to dodge a punch and swung her leg out tripping the man who had sent the punch. She then

pushed him across the floor, using him to trip another of the men who was running towards her. Dragonfly then reached for her whip,

but before she could grab it she received a punch to the stomach that left her breathless. The man who punched her went in for

another one, but this time the girl grabbed his arm and used her excess momentum to flip him into the man about to attack her from

behind.

Dragonfly whirled around to face the Panther only to see him running towards the door desperate to escape. She instantly drew her

whip flicked in his direction letting in wrap around his foot and trip him. She then pulled the struggling man to her and pinned him to

ground wrapping her whip around his hands and feet.

"You crime bosses are all the same. You use you're underlings to fight for you and are weak as a result," Dragonfly mumbled grabbing

her headphones from around her neck and starting to fiddle with her iPhone. She placed the headphones over his head, ignoring his

loud protests and pressed a button on her iPhone and within seconds the Panther had drifted into unconsciousness. She pulled the

headphones off him and slipped them back around her neck while typing out a quick message to the police, tipping them off about the

crime bosses. She then sneaked quietly out of the building making sure to knock the guards unconscious with an electric shock as she

left. She then swung herself back up to the roof with her whip and took off running. She bolted quickly across the rooftops and easily

leaped from roof to roof, unaware of the ice blue eyes peering out from the shadows watching her.


	2. The Dragonfly

**A/N**

Hey everybody! It's been a bit longer than I thought, but I think this chapter is a pretty good, yet not to revealing, introduction to the face behind the Dragonfly Mask. I hope you enjoy the little blurb I put in at the end. I'd like to thank all people who reviewed last chapter(RaynerFox, booklover1498, annabannana98, and that one guest review) I really appreciate it. Now onto the disclaimer.

**Disclaimer:**

Dragonfly: *stares blankly*

Hikari: What I wanted you to do the disclaimer?

Dragonfly: *raises eyebrow*

Hikari: I couldn't use your secret I.D because they don't know it yet.

Dragonfly: *sighs with exasperation*

Hikari: Don't sigh with exasperation at me. I really wanted to use you. This is your intro chapter it's important. So do the disclaimer:

Dragonfly: Hikari only owns me and her ideas.

Hikari: Thank you. To the Story

* * *

Chapter 1

The Dragonfly

"Feels like I leave behind a little bit of who I was in each house we've left empty."

Brian Williams, Zombie Blondes

Malibu, California

August 2, 2010

9:00 PST

A light wind rose up from the beach and flowed gently towards the mansion bordering it. The wind floated in

threw the open window near the top of the house bringing with it the faint scent of sand and salt. The wind drifted

aimlessly throughout the nearly empty room before it stumbled upon a large bed and ruffled the sheets piled on top of it.

The movement prompted a slight reaction from the figure bundled up in the bed and at the same time the beginning

chords of Linkin Park's Papercut began blaring through the pair of purple and white Skull Candy headphones poking out

of the pile of sheets. Within seconds, the figure had pulled the sheets off of her head, revealing a black haired Asian girl

facing towards the ceiling with closed eyes. The girl did not bother to turn of the music simply resting her iPhone on her

stomach and letting the song fade into the next track on her morning playlist.

The girl lay there peacefully for a few moments before she was drawn out of her daydreams by sharp knocking

at her bedroom door.

"Natsuki!" a pleasant yet clearly southern voice called from outside the door, "Are you awake?"

Natsuki slipped the headphones of her ear and blinked her eyes open revealing a pair of grey irises.

"I'm asleep."

"Of course you are," the voice chuckled. "But you won't be for much longer if you make me go in there."

"You wouldn't," Natsuki teased as she began to rise in her bed. The girl froze halfway to a sitting a position and

looked down at herself finally noticing the black and blue kimino that she was clad in.

"I forget to change out of my Dragonfly uniform," Natsuki thought with fear.

"Oh yes I would," replied the same voice, oblivious to the state the girl was in. "See I'm putting my hand on the

doorknob now….." she trailed off and seconds afterwards the sound the doorknob being shaken range through the room

jolting Natsuki out of her shock.

"No! " she cried as she threw the sheets off of her and dashed into the bathroom.

"Don't come in, Gloria. I'm up!"

"Good. Be down for breakfast in 15 minutes."

Natsuki listened to the sound of Gloria's footsteps getting fainter and fainter as she walked down the stairs and

she only relaxed when she could barely hear her footsteps. Natsuki slumped back against the bathroom door in relief as

she ran a hand through her hair.

"That was too close for comfort," she murmured to herself while she took deep breaths to calm herself down.

The black haired girl bent down over the sink and splashed her face with cold water before deciding to take a quick

shower.

When she came out of the shower she quickly bandaged a few injuries she had received during her late night

activities and threw on a pair of black skinny jeans and a teal graphic tee. She then jogged lightly out of the room and

down the stairs, ignoring her slightly aching muscles. She opened her mouth as she entered the kitchen intending to call

out to Gloria, but she froze with her mouth open when she saw the man sitting at the counter flipping through his iPhone.

Immediately, her relaxed posture stiffened and she shuffled over to the table awkwardly. She sat down rigidly with

impeccable posture as she looked back and forth between the food Gloria had placed before her and the man at the

table. After a few moments she fully removed her gaze from the man and focused intensely on placing each piece of

pancake in her mouth. In fact she became so desperate to distract herself that she began counting each bite she took.

Finally, just as the atmosphere was getting thick enough that Natsuki was beginning to think she was going to

choke on it, the man set down his iPhone and turned his blue-eyed gaze to her.

"Are you all packed up?" he asked stiffly running a hand through his carefully groomed black hair.

"Yes, Drew" Natsuki responded.

"Good. We're leaving for Central City at five, so be ready."

"I will….do we really have to move?" Natsuki asked hesitantly.

"This is a big deal for our company, Natsuki. It will help our sales increase infinitely. It's something we need to do," Drew explained blankly.

"Okay," the dark haired girl sighed.

"I've already enrolled you in Keystone High. You'll be starting in 6 days as a sophomore."

"But I've just turned 14. I'm supposed to be in 8th grade this year."

"The school says that your IQ is that of a sophomore. As a result you will be starting this school years as a sophomore."

"Oh," Natsuki blinked and then jumped a little as her dad stepped down from the stool.

"I left the orientation papers by your door. Go over them," he ordered before walking rigidly out of the room.

Instantly, Natsuki's stiffness vanished and she let out the breath she had been holding since she entered the room. That

was Drew alright.

Drew Jackson, CEO and co-founder of J-Tech, one of the most prestigious technologically advanced companies in

the nation, was one of the most influential people in the world, and Natsuki just so happened to be his

, Natsuki hadn't been close to her dad since her mom's death a few years back.

The black haired girl sighed sadly as she drifted off into her thoughts. A rustling sound interrupting her musing and she

blinked out of her daydreams to see Gloria removing her plate from the counter.

"Thanks, Gloria," she said smiling at the thin, gray haired old lady.

"Don't worry about it," the lady smiled her warm brown eyes twinkling brightly. "I'm just doing my job."

"You will be coming with us to Central right?" Natsuki asked hopefully, her grey eyes widening.

"Of course, doll. I'm not going to leave ya'll alone to fend for yourselves," she declared smiling. "Now, don't you

have papers to read?"

"I'm going," Natsuki smiled, hopping down off the stool and slipping her headphones back over her ears.

She padded up the stairs lightly and grabbed the papers in front of her bedroom door and plopped back down on

her bed to read through them. 30 minutes and five million forms later, Natsuki had finished and was fiddling around with

her iPhone so that she could to a bit of training before she delved into her newest computer programming book. When

she finally found was she pressed a few button before setting it down and taking a step back as a hologram was

projected into the room. The hologram was dressed in similar style to a karate master and immediately beginning going

through the typical salute required for Karate. Natsuki jumped in quickly and completed the salute just in time to parry a

punch the hologram had thrown at her. From there Natsuki and the Hologram began sparring.

The two easily got into a rhythm of punches as kicks and Natsuki was intently focused as she tried to look for

openings in the holograms defenses. She darted in to try and kick his leg out, but he moved back at the last second

causing her to trip over her own feet. She recovered her balance quickly and stepped back a bit as the hologram circled

her, trying to deduce the best method of attack. But before she could take action the hologram had mimed taking her

arm and pinning her to the ground in a hold she knew she would not be able to escape from if he was real. Natsuki

sighed and shut the program down realizing that she needed to work on thinking less and acting more, because if that

happened while she was on patrol she would be dead in an instant.

The black haired girl plopped down on her bed and began scanning through the computer programming book. The book

was college level, but Natsuki breezed through it easily and when she was done she had already begun to think of new

modifications she could make to her iPhone. She pulled it out of her jeans pocket and flipped through it mindlessly,

flicking between all of the special features she had added which included x-ray vision, her camera emitting a laser, and a

criminal database that she had secretly linked with the Justice League mainframe to help her with her crime fighting

duties. She momentarily debated adding some kind of thermal imaging function, but got distracted when she saw the

time at the top of her screen.

It was 4 o'clock. That meant she only had one more hour left in the house she grew up in. All thought of thermal

imaging flew out of her mind and she slipped out of her room and began to wander through the house. Everywhere she

looked memories and images bombarded her giving her a feeling of melancholy. The living room was where she first

learned to walk, the computer in her dad's office that was the first computer she secretly programmed, and in the living

room was The Chair. She stared at for few moments taking in the worn down black leather chair. Stuffing was poking

out of the sides and the top, the leather was beginning to crack in places and one of the chair legs had bite marks in it

from when she was little and had first discovered teeth.

She stepped towards the chair and began to run her fingers over it thinking back to her first memory of the

chair. She was eight at the time, a third grader, and she had come home crying because of something another kid had

said to her.

_"What wrong?" an women asked a small Natsuki soothingly as she picked her up and set her down in the chair. The chair was much larger the small girl, making her appear tiny and fragile._

_ "A kid today was mean to me," small Natsuki cried with ears ran down her face._

_ "What did the kid say?"_

_ "He said I was weird because I knew too much."_

_ The women pursed her lips with an angry look in her eyes and for a moment rage flashed across her pale face_

_causing her already dark green eyes to grow even darker. As quickly as the rage appeared, it disappeared and the_

_women picked Natsuki up, sat down in the chair, and placed Nastuki in her lap._

_ "You shouldn't listen to people like that Suki. That boy was simply jealous because you're smarter than him. You_

_should be glad you're smarter than him, not sad. Wanna know why?"_

_ "Why?" Nastsuki sniffed focusing her blue eyes on her mother's green ones._

_ "Because being smart means that when you grow up you'll be more important than him. You could end up rich_

_and famous or you could live a normal life or just do whatever you want because being smart gives you more options." _

_ "I wanna be like mommy," Natsuki stated._

_ "…..I don't think you want to be like mom."_

_ "I do mommy is the greatest. I'm going to grow up and be exactly like mommy," Natuski said crossing her arms_

_with a pout._

_"If you say so," her mom said with a laugh at her daughters attempts at stubbornness._

Natsuki smiled at the memory and soon a barrage of memories began to flood through her mind enveloping her

in a blanket of memories that left Natsuki feeling slightly bittersweet. Her reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of a

door slamming.

"Natsuki! Time to go!" her father yelled impatiently and from the living room Natsuki could hear him tapping

away at his phone and for a moment her eyes darkened.

"Does he even care that we're leaving the house that we've always lived in. The house that he built with

mom…..does he even care anymore?" Natsuki thought clenching her fists tightly at her sides. She forced herself to take

a few deep breaths before she left the room and went into the main hall where her father was.

"I already had the chauffer put your luggage in the car," he said still looking at his iPhone. "Are you ready to go?"

"No," is what Natsuki wanted to say. She did not want to leave. This house was her home; she had grown up

here and almost of all her memories took place in this house. This house connected her to her mom and whenever she

was here she did not feel quite so alone. Instead of saying all these things though, Natsuki simply walked out of the

house and stepped into the limo waiting for her at the end of the drive. Her father, followed close behind and in minutes,

the long, sleek, black car was pulling out of the gate. Natsuki watched the house vanish from the tinted windows of the

car with sad eyes and when it was finally out of sight and she had to turn around in her seat she felt an overwhelming

sense of loneliness wash over her as if she had just left behind her best friend.

* * *

Watchtower, Space

16:20 EST

"I want to mentor the Dragonfly," a woman's voice said breaking the silence between the two people in the room.

"What!" a male voice exclaimed.

"I said I want to mentor the Dragonfly."

"Don't you think you're moving a little too quickly on this?"

"I've been watching the girl for three months. She's good but she needs someone to teach her the ropes before she gets hurt."

"But you've only been observing her for 3 months."

"That's ninety two days. More than enough time."

"But-"

"Why are you so against this? You have a protégé."

"That's exactly why. Mentoring takes time, time that you don't have."

"I'll make time."

"But-"

"No buts. I'm going to do this whether you like this or not."

"At least tell Batman first,"

"Why should I?"

"He might not approve."

"I do not need Batman's approval to do anything. I do what I want to do."

"He's not going to like this."

"I just told you that I don't care what Batman thinks."

"But I do."

"Good thing that I'm the one doing this not you."

"Di-"

"Listen, I am going to talk to her tomorrow about this and that's final. You have no say in the matter."

"Then why did you ask me."

"I wasn't asking. I was telling."

"Of course you were."


	3. Flames and Blondes

A/R

It has been less than two weeks! Do you know what this means? It mean that I'm on time for once. SCORE! Anyways, I'm going to save most of this rant stuff for later on as I have an announcement to make at the end of the chapter. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer:

**Wally:** So, Hikari asked me to do the Disclaimer this time as she's currently busy sneaking into the Young Justice department of DC Comics, so Hikari does not and will not own anything except her OC and her ideas because we all know she will fail at stealing the copyright documents.

* * *

Chapter 2

Flames and Blondes

"Just being friendly to the new girl."

Dick Grayson, Young Justice

**Central City, Missouri**

**August 2, 2010**

**21:50 CTD**

The sleek black limo acquired a great deal of attention as it cruised through the Central City streets. People

everywhere stopped what they were doing to peer out of a window or door to catch a glimpse of the arrival of _the_ Drew

Jackson. Inside of the tinted windows, Natsuki and Drew had no idea about the commotion they were causing. Instead,

they were both buried deeply inside their own little worlds in an attempt to cover up the awkwardness between them.

Drew was once again tapping away at his iPhone while Natsuki had her nose deep inside Harry Potter: Order of the

Pheonix as she listened to the soundtrack of the movie on Spotify. She was reaching the end of the book, and was just

getting to the part where the kids all broke into the Ministry of Magic when the limo screeched to a stop, prompting her

to look out of the window.

What she saw took her breath away. The new J-Tech building towered above all the other skyscrapers around it,

and the tinted glass reflected the moonlight, causing the building to be surrounded by a silver glow. Resting on top of the

building was a massive neon blue sign reading J-Tech, that stood out drastically against the bleak Central City skyline.

Natsuki couldn't take her eyes off of the building as the chauffer helped her out of the car and guided her into the

building. She uttered a distracted thanks to the man as she took in the sleek design of the lobby. The walls were a

creamy beige color, and were accented by 2 brown columns and dark chocolate hardwood floor. A few silver metallic

tables were scattered through the room, but what took up most of the space was the massive white sectional that was

sitting across from an equally massive television that was mounted on the wall.

Natsuki was wandering aimlessly through the lobby, peering out of windows and looking at furniture when a tall

brunette wearing the typical black dress suit entered her field of vision.

"You're Natsuki right?" the women spoke cheerfully.

"Uh…yea."

"That's good I'm Ashley Blackwell, you're father's P.A."

"Err..nice to meet you?" the black haired girl responded hesitantly while she reached out and lightly shook the

hand of the woman.

"You're father had some work that suddenly came up so he asked me to show you the penthouse," she said

brightly blinking her chocolate brown doe eyes at the girl.

"Uh…okay?"

"Great! Now if you'll just step into the elevator," Ashley said gesturing to the glass elevators at the edge of the lobby.

Natsuki headed to the elevator with Ashley following close behind, her heels clacking lightly against the ground

with each step.

"The penthouse is great. You will love it so much," Ashley gushed, looking down at teenaged girl.

"It has an indoor pool, movie theater, gym, spa, and about everything else a teenager could want. All of the

equipment is state of the art and all electronics are the latest in Jackson Tech as well."

"uuhhhh…" Natsuki mumbled not quite sure how to deal with the overly perky P.A. Luckily, for her at that very

moment the door to the elevator opened to penthouse prompting Ashley to go off into another monologue.

"This is the main room," she said as the two stepped into a large, open living area. Like in the lobby, the main

piece of furniture in the room was a silver and black curved sectional with a glass coffee table in front of it. Across from it

was an electronic fireplace with a slim, flat screen television mounted above it, and behind the sectional was a glass wall

that gave a great view of the cities center. Natsuki gazed at the room briefly before running to catch up to Ashley who

had kept moving towards the kitchen, unaware that the girl was not following her. The kitchen was just as open as the

living room and full of high tech appliances that Natsuki knew Gloria was going to love once she was flown in from

Malibu.

"Now, I'll show you the indoor pool which-"

"Can I just go to my bedroom?"

"Oh well, yes if you want to-"

"Please, I'm really tired."

"Sure! And I can say for a fact that you will adore you're bedroom. You're dad had it done specially for you,

handpicked all the designs and everything."

Natsuki blinked in surprise after hearing this and shot an incredulous look at the P.A. who was walking quickly

down the hallway leading off of the living room.

"I find that a little hard to…." Natsuki began to mumble, but trailed off when she saw the wooden teal door with

Natsuki engraved on it and she walked up to it and pushed it open curiously. Natsuki stepped in and stared in shock at

the room in front of her. The two black walls were made entirely out of glass that was constantly shifting between

different shades of blue. In the middle of the room was a large round bed covered in teal sheets and pillows. In front of

the bed were two teal round chairs that faced a massive entertainment system complete with an X-box and a Wii. The

whole room was doused in a light blue light that came from the massive chandelier handing from the ceiling of the room.

"Amazing isn't it?" Ashley asked only to be completely tuned out by the overjoyed girl.

"Well, if you need anything just page me," Ashley said as she left the room. Natsuki still paid her no mind and

threw herself down on the bed squealing happily like a kid. She quickly pulled out her phone and sent her dad a message

that simply read thanks, before curling up on the bed with the previously forgotten Harry Potter book and settled down

to find out what happened at the Ministry Of Magic.

* * *

**Keystone High, Central City**

**August 10, 2012**

**7:30 CTD**

Natsuki hopped easily out of the black limo and hurried inside of the building ignoring the various stares she was

receiving from all the students gathered outside of the building. It had been a little over a week since she had moved

here and she had found out earlier on in the week that wherever she went people were going to stare at her, not that

the knowledge made her any more comfortable with the stares that followed her wherever she went. Inwardly, she was

wishing that she had started school with everybody else on the eighth as she would have been less noticeable then.

The dark haired girl headed straight for the front office and slipped inside quietly glad to receive a moment of

reprieve from the stares. Natsuki walked up to the desk silently and rang the bell startling the secretary who had not

noticed the girl come into the office. The lady quickly recovered from her shock at the sight of the girl and tried to

discreetly smooth down her dress as she stood up to shake Natsuki's hand.

"Natsuki Jackson, I presume? It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Uhhh same to you," Natsuki responded as she shifted back and forth from one leg to another.

"Do you have all the forms we sent for you to fill out?"

"Oh, yea they're uhh…." Natsuki trailed off digging inside of the bag slung across her shoulder and pulling out a

manila folder. "They're all in here."

"Thanks you. Now here is your schedule, would you like me to go over it with you or would you rather have me

appoint a student to help you to your classes?"

"I think I can get to my classes by myself."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes….uh thanks for your help."

"No problem," the secretary said letting a smile light up her face. She looked quite pretty when she smiled,

Natsuki noted, taking in the lightly tanned face, dark blonde hair and brown eyes that crinkled in the corner when she

smiled. She was quite young to be a secretary as she could not be more the twenty five and the reason for someone like

her to work as a school secretary was lost on Natsuki, who pondered it as she left the front office and headed down the

hall to find her locker.

She found her locker with relative ease and was in the process of organizing it neatly when a voice spoke in her ear.

"Morning!"

Nastuki jumped a bit in shock which cause her to smash he head on the top edge of her locker. A dagger of pain

shot through her head briefly and began to taking deep breaths in order to restrain the scream building up inside of her.

She stayed like that until the pain subsided and turned around to see who had greeted her. The person who had greeted

her was a boy slightly older than her with distinctive red hair and bright green eyes. He was taller than Nastuki,

something that was unsurprising considering that she was stuck at a height of 5'4, and was looking down at her with a

worried expression.

"Are you okay? Does is hurt too badly? Should I get the nurse?"

"I'm fine."

"Oh well that's good! I'm Wally by the way. I'm your locker neighbor. And you are?"

"Natsuki….."

"Sweetness, is that Japanese?" he questioned eagerly, but before the girl could respond his eyes had fallen on

the schedule in her hand and had snatched it up quickly.

"Hey! We basically have the same schedule. I can show you around if you want."

"That's okay I don't need -"

" Aw come on Suki. We're heading to the same place anyway," Wally pleaded.

"Umm…"

"I'm going to take that as a yes," the red haired boy said shutting Natsuki's locker and grabbing her by the wrist.

Soon enough, the small Asian girl found herself being pulled down the hall at an incredible pace and she was so confused

by this unexpected development that she did not even try to stop Wally from dragging her to first period.

"Our first period is Honors Algebra two with Mrs. Davidson. She's one the best teacher ever. She does give out regular

homework though, which is to be expected considering that it's math. Most of our work in class in self study since it's

honors class. She does not have ridiculously high expectations though, and since most of the students actually care about

the class it has a pretty nice environment….Are you getting all of this Suki?"

Natsuki snapped out of her shock at hearing Suki and she briefly wondered when on earth she had been dubbed Suki and

if there was any hope of convincing him to call her by her real name. She quickly ruled out that possibly when she

realized that he had started up his rambling again even though she had not responded to his question and decided that

she would just deal with it.

She let him pull her into the classroom, sat in the seat across from him and finally began listening to whatever he was

going on about.

"How old are you by the way, because you look a little young for a sophomore?"

"Just turned fourteen."

"No way! You skipped two grades?"

"Uh yea, "Natsuki responded as her face flushed. Wally opened his mouth to say something else, but just then the

teacher walked in and immediately called for attention as she started the lesson.

Nastuki honestly tried to pay attention to the teacher lesson, but the farther into the class she went, the more her mind

cleared from the muddled mess Wally had made it, and the urge to observe the overly cheerful red head sitting next to

her grew larger. Finally, Natsuki gave up all together and simply sat back in her chair and devoted her attention subtly

watching Wally out of the corner of her eye. The boy looked relaxed and extremely bored while he lazily took notes on

sheet of looseleaf paper. His red hair was cut short with a few pieces hanging in his face and Natsuki noted a few freckles

dotting his cheeks that she had not seen before. He was wearing a pair of baggy jeans with a white shirt and red jacket

and overall seemed like a pretty average guy. Suki had just finished her observations when Wally turned to the side and

grinned shooting the girl a playful wink. The girl quickly turned her head and let her hair fall to the side, using it as a

curtain to hide her face from the boy. As she turned her attention back to the teacher, Natsuki felt heat rising to her

cheeks and made the quick decision that his smile was most definitely not average.

* * *

**20:00 CTD**

Dragonfly was sitting on top of one of the many building circling the center of Central City, staring at her iPhone

intently as she listened to the police scanner and patiently waited for them to announce something close to where she

was patrolling. While she was waiting her mind drifted back to her school day. She had been dragged around by Wally all

day as she had not found the courage to protest. The red haired boy had taken her to all of her classes, including the

one's she did not have with him, and was generally friendly the whole day. He even invited the teenaged hero to sit with

him and his friends at lunch which was a new experience for Natsuki as she did not interact with people her age much.

She did not contribute much to the conversation at the table, opting to listen to her music instead, but she still found it

nice to be around teenagers instead of the adults who worked for her father.

"Fire going on at an apartment building on 545 Blackberry Lane, there is a kid stuck inside, all available fire units

report," crackled the police scanner, piercing through Dragonfly's thoughts. She looked quickly down at the GPS on her

phone and noted that the address was close to her; she quickly plugged it in into her GPS and swung herself down from

the rooftop using her whip. She easily began swinging from building to building easily, careful to remain in the shadows

to avoid the attention of any passerby's. She reached the house that was on fire quickly and swung straight through an

open window, dropping into a crouched position with her whip still in hand.

The minute Dragonfly landed in the building she could feel the heat pressing in on her and clogging the air, and

for a minute she struggled to breath in the hot dry air. However, soon enough, she acclimated to the temperature of the

air and started her search for the child. Dragonfly did not dare to touch any of the doors in the building and instead used

her whip to either turn the knob or simple smashed the door open. She had just finished the second floor of the building

and was starting to doubt her chances of finding the child when she heard the faint sound of a little kid crying. Dragonfly

froze for a minute wondering if the sound was her imagination, but when she heard the sound the second time, she knew

she was not imagining it. She hurriedly pulled out her iPhone and used it to trace the sound to the fourth floor of the

building.

Dragonfly began running at this point as she knew that the kid could not stay in the building much longer

without ending up with severe smoke poisoning. She bolted up the burning stares at top speed, ignoring the heat

brushing up against her ankles. The sound got louder and louder as she got closer to the fourth floor and by the time she

reached it she had pinpointed exactly what room the sound was coming from. The costumed hero did not even bother to

take the time to open the door and instead wrenched the door off its hinges with her whip. When the door fell, she saw a

small girl of about 7 or 8 hiding in a corner, desperately clutching a doll. The room around her was full of flames and\

they were slowly creeping over to where she was huddled in the right hand corner of the room. The child looked up at

the sound of the door crashing to the floor and regarded Dragonfly with fearful eyes.

Dragonfly looked around the room for something that she could use to swing over to the child, but seeing

nothing she instead decided to bolt through the flames as fast as possible. She could feel the flames licking her ankles as

she ran through them, but she blatantly ignored the pain, as she reached the corner, grabbed the girl and bolted back

out of the room. By this point the heat inside of the building had increase and Dragonfly was struggling to breathe

through the smoke. The girl in her arms starting coughing violently and Dragonfly looked down at her anxiously

and began running down the stairs again, desperate to get the girl out of the building.

"It's okay," she said quietly to the girl as she ran, "It is going to be okay. I'm going to get you out of here."

The girl did not respond and simply clutched to Dragonfly tighter, burying her face into her shoulder. Dragonfly

had reached the second floor and was starting door the last flight of steps when a large beam crashed to the ground right

in front of her and burst into flames. The black haired girl stepped back in shock, cradling the small girl to her chest as

the girl began to cry silently. Dragonfly stared at the beam with a horrified expression as she realized that if a beam this

big was falling, the whole building was going to come down soon. She snapped herself out of her shock and started

running through the hallway heading for the end of the hallway. When she reached it she skidded to a stop and pulled

and explosive throwing knife out of her sleeve, threw it at the wall, and then darted back out of range. The wall blew up

with a bang, creating a massive hole in the side of the wall. Dragonfly did not waste any time in flicking her whip so that

it encircled the edge of the opposite building, allowing her to jump out of the building. As she lowered herself and the girl

down, the building collapsed behind them until it was essentially just a giant bonfire.

Dragonfly plunked herself onto the ground with the girl in her lap and breathed a sigh of relief as she gulped

down the cool night air. As the adrenaline began to fade away she became acutely aware of the burning sensation in her

ankles and around her foot. She decided to ignore the pain for now and instead focused her attention on the crying girl in

her lap. Dragonfly turned the blonde girl around so that she was facing her and looked deeply into her brown eyes.

"Hey, everything alright now," she soothed, wiping the tears running down the child's face. "You're perfectly fine

out here. Nothing is going to hurt you now. Okay?"

The girl nodded quickly, before throwing her arms around the costumed hero, shocking Dragonfly into a frozen state.

"uhhhh…..it's okay, kid," Dragonfly said awkwardly, patting the girl on the back. "What's your name?"

"Amber," the girl mumbled pulling back.

"Well Amber, let's get you to your parents okay."

Dragonfly led the girl to the front of the wreckage, where she was immediately snatched up by a frantic woman

who clutched the child to her desperately while tears ran down her face. Dragonfly smiled happily at the reunion before

fading back into the shadows to avoid recognition.

She went back to where she had left the building and grabbed her whip from where it had fallen to the ground

and was beginning to leave when a clear voice rang out from behind her.

"Impressive," the voice said causing Dragonfly to stiffen and reach for her belt, wondering how on earth she had

not heard the person coming.

"Relax. I don't want to hurt you, in fact I want to help you. Dragonfly whirled around at the end of the sentence

and threw an array of knives in the direction of the voice, but the person behind her easily dodged the throwing knives.

Dragonfly reached for another knife, but as she finally got a good look at the person before her, she dropped the knife in

fear at the sight. The lady in front of her had light blonde hair and was wearing grey leggings, black calf-length boots,

and black fingerless gloves that reached her biceps along with a black corset and blue jacket. She shot Dragonfly a

confident smile as she stuck her hand out to the young hero.

"I'm Black Canary."

* * *

**So, things are picking up as you can see. Anyway the main thing I wanted to tell you is that I started a blog for this**

**story ****on tumblr ****and I will be and have started posting some stuff about the story including character sketches and**

**such. ****Right now I have the chapters ****up there along with a sketch of Natsuki and her morning playlist which I**

**mentioned last ****chapter. I may also post a few blurbs from ****future chapter so you should check the link which will be on**

**my profile page.**

**So thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the story**


	4. Sparks

**A/R**

**So, I don't have enough time for a proper A/R (Authors Rant) today, so all I'm going to say it that I don't own Young Justice and I hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

* * *

Chapter 3: Sparks

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

-Lance Armstrong

_Recap: The lady in front of her had light blonde hair and was wearing grey leggings, black calf-length books, black fingerless gloves that reached her biceps along with a black corset and blue jacket. She shot Dragonfly a confident smile as she stuck her hand out to the young hero._

_ "I'm Black Canary."_

Dragonfly stared Black Canary with a mix of awe and fear as she backed away from the hero.

"Relax Dragonfly, I'm the good guy remember?"

Dragonfly remained silent and continued staring at the blonde, hyperaware of every single move she made.

"I just want to talk."

"About what?" Dragonfly said finally in a quiet voice.

"I want you as my protégé."

"Excuse me?" Dragonfly choked out.

"You heard me. I want you to be my protégé. I've been looking for one for awhile, and when I stumbled upon you, you seemed to be perfect. Ever since then I've been keeping you under surveillance and so far you've only further proved my theory that you'd be the perfect partner for me. So, what do you say?"

"Erm…." Dragonfly mumbled as gears turned in her head. To her the idea of working with an accomplished hero was a great opportunity and after turning the pros and cons around in her head for a few moments was sure that this was the best option for her. Just as she was about to agree to the proposal however another thought entered her mind. This single thought immediately prompted her into saying what she said next.

"No."

"No?"

"No."

Black Canary lifted an eyebrow in disbelief before approaching the girl.

"I think that you've rushed you're decision a bit. You see you being my protégé is something that ultimately benefits you. You'll get some the best training there is and you'll get to make more of a difference then you are simply taking out random thugs on the streets.

"I know all of that."

"Then why are you disagreeing."

"It's just that if I become your partner, I'll have to do everything your way and I won't get to make decisions for myself. I like keeping the power to make decisions for myself. Besides, someone needs to take care of the little people. So, thanks, but no thanks."

"But-"

"Bye."

With that Dragonfly hooked her whip onto the top of a nearby building and swung away. She did not want to take the risk of hanging around any longer and getting coerced into becoming Black Canary's protégé even though she did not want to be. She was however aware that if she did not hurry, Black Canary could easily catch up to her, so after she swung onto a nearby rooftop she starting running at top speed, not daring to look behind her. Once she was sure that Back Canary would not be able to follow her anymore she plopped down heavily on top of the roof she was on, taking in deep breaths of the cool night air. Her breathing was starting to become heavy and ragged at this point and she was beginning to be aware of tingling sensation coming from the burns on her feet as well as being sore from pounding so harshly against the rooftops.

She let herself relax for a moment and tuned into the sounds of the city buzzing around her as an escape from the pain that had overtaken her body. She heard the rumble of the cars driving below her, the overlapping sound of multiple sirens, and the faint sound of a bass in the background, probably from a concert in the distance. Dragonfly was just starting to calm down and was considering getting up, when she felt the cold, metal edge of a knife trailing across her neck.

"Well hello there little bug," said a sickeningly sweet voice. "How are you doing tonight?"

"I was considerably better until you showed up," Dragonfly breathed as she felt her body lock up at the feel of the knife while her breaths became uneven and forced despite her efforts to keep calm.

"Aww that's too bad. Don't worry though it will all be over soon. You see it's my job to exterminate little bugs like you."

"Is that supposed to make this better?"

"Not really! But if I didn't have to kill you we might have been friends."

"I seriously doubt that," Dragonfly said before she spun around on her butt and slammed her feet her feet in the chest of the person behind her while she simultaneously threw two smoke emitting knives at the attacker. While the lady (Dragonfly had assumed she was female from her voice) stumbled around in the fog, Dragonfly rolled to the side and sprung to her feet grabbing her whip from her belt. She scanned the foggy air carefully and the second she saw the silhouette of her attacker moved to attack.

Flicking her wrist slightly, she sliced the air where the attacker stood with her whip, but the shadow moved seconds before the whip made contact. Dragonfly looked around for the woman, but was unable to see her until she sensed a presence approaching her from behind. She immediately whirled around and cracked her whip in the air in front of her, just managing to hit the fist heading her way. She dodged a second punch and moved to punch her attacker in the face, only to be stopped by an unseen punch to the gut. Dragonfly gasped for breath and moved back to catch her breath, keeping her eyes trained on the woman. She noted that the woman was tall with a build that somewhat reminded the girl of a gymnast as she possessed broad shoulders and muscled legs. She was wearing a tight fitting black and white catsuit with an elaborate skull design etched on the shoulder and her face and hair were shadows by a black hood that flowed out into a short cape. The villainess grinned maliciously as she sauntered towards the Dragonfly, cradling the hand the teenaged hero had hit with the whip.

"That wasn't very nice."

"You're not nice."

"I'm very nice. I was going to end you painlessly, but then you had to pull this stunt. Now you have to be punished. No more nice death for you."

"How about no death at all?"

Dragonfly dashed forward, distracting the woman by cracking her whip over her head before slamming a foot into her stomach. The lady stumbled back giving Dragonfly the opportunity to bring the villain to the ground by slashing her legs repeatedly until she sank to the ground. The dark haired hero dived down to pin hooded woman's arms and managed to wrestle the behind her back.

"You're going to have to pay for that hun," the villain said sweetly turning her head to look back at Dragonfly.

The woman's eyes started glowing a bright blue and electricity began running up and down her body forcing Dragonfly to step back. Dragonfly started to retreat cautiously eyes wide as she stared at the electricity running up and down the woman's body.

The woman got to her feet and turned around slowly, smirking when she saw the look on Dragonfly's face.

"Do you like my party trick?" she asked Dragonfly sweetly as she swayed on her feet a little. "Would you like me to show what it does?"

"... Not really."

"Well, I'm going to show you anyway." With that the sent an arc of electricity towards Dragonfly who just barely managed to dodge by dropping to the ground. Her effort was in vain though because the moment she hit the ground, she was hit with anther burst of electricity. It hit her dead on in the stomach eliciting a rough scream to erupt from Dragonfly's mouth. Pain coursed through her body, she felt as if her entire being had gone up in flames. She had to repress the urge to puke as she desperately tried to catch her breath while she watched the villainess walk towards her, hands covered in electricity.

The black haired girl, stumbled to her feet dizzily determined to get hit with another blast of electricity. She flicked her wrist, yet again, this time letting the whip circled around the edge of the opposite building before jumping into the ally below. Dragonfly hit the ground feet first and grimaced as a flash of pain shot up her feet. She stumbled up against the alley wall and happily placed her hand on the surface, which was cool compared to her extremely hot skin. She reluctantly turned around when the sound of heels began echoing throughout the alley, knowing that the electric woman had caught up with her. She also knew that she had little to no chance of beating the woman. At this point her energy level was so low, that she had to make an effort to stand. Fighting in this condition would be nearly impossible. Dragonfly easily realized that she only had enough energy left for one more big attack and mentally began preparing a plan of action, fully intending to make this one chance count.

"That was a cowardly move," the woman smiled.

"That was a smart move," Dragonfly countered.

"Wrong. That was a bad move because you just made be angry," the woman growled, diving to attack the teenaged hero.

With one last burst of energy, Dragonfly pushed and cracked her whip in the air, startling the woman long enough for her to smack her across the face with the whip. She followed it up with a high right roundhouse kick to her jawbone, before delivering a powerful back elbow in the woman solar plexus. These actions seemed to have to effect on the villains who simply respond by pumping another stream of electricity through Dragonfly, one that left her collapsed on the floor.

"Aww are you done already? I was expecting much more from you. I mean at this point I thought you would have brought out that."

Dragonfly rolled over onto and looked at the woman with a look of pure disbelief. There was no way she could know about "that", nobody knew about "that".

"You shouldn't give me that disbelieving look. Trust me I know all about it and I'm actually quite interested in it. If you showed me, I might not kill you."

"W-who are you?" Dragonfly stammered out blatantly ignoring the proposition as she tried to push herself up to her feet.

"I'm Sparks. Now can I see your party trick? I mean I'm giving you a pretty good offer here."

Dragonfly managed to pull herself up to her knees despite the fact that every inch of her was shaking and her grey eyes turned ice cold as she glared at Sparks.

"No."

"Your choice," Sparks shrugged letting electricity cover her hands.

"Hold it!" A male voice called and before the two could react a red and yellow blur ran into Sparks plowing her over and sending her hurtling to the ground.

The blur circled around Sparks for a few times to make sure she was not getting up anytime soon before it skidded to a stop in front of Dragonfly and she looked to the see the worried face of Kid Flash


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N **

**So I felt the great need to get this bit up on Christmas as a little present to all of you. So, I hope you enjoy the chapter despite the fact that I couldn't come up with a decent title and I wish you all a very merry Christmas.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Young Justice it would be on tv right now.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale."  
― Peter S. Beagle, _The Last Unicorn_

**21:40 CTD**

"Are you okay?" Kid Flashed asked the grey eyed girl.

"I'm fine," she mumbled quietly as Kid Flash easily picked her up and deposited her at the end of the ally.

"Let me handle this," He instructed seriously before flashing over to confront Sparks who had quickly recovered from the sudden blow and was now standing in the middle of the ally, eyes flashing dangerously. Electricity was covering her entire body by this point and both heroes could feel the tension radiating off of her in waves as she narrowed her eyes at Kid Flash.

"Don't get involved in my business. Dragonfly is mine," she hissed as she threw bolts of energy at the speedster who easily dodged before running forward and punching Sparks in the stomach. She took the hit head on and when Kid went to move his hand he found that she had it trapped between her two hands. Sparks sent an electric pulse throughout his arm, but before it reached the rest of him Kid Flash wrenched his arm out of her grasp and sprung back, cradling his arm to himself.

Sparks did not allow him a second to recover before she attacked again, shooting immense balls of electricity at the red head. Kid was easily able to dodge them at first, but after awhile she increased her speed and soon the speedster was reduced to circling her at top speed to avoid getting hit. His energy was quickly running out though and Kid Flash was starting to worry. He had considered grabbing the girl and running away, but after one attempt her realized that breaking his pattern made him more vulnerable to attack, as to grab the girl he had to run in a straight line.

He was beginning to think that he was doomed when two throwing knives flew towards Sparks embedding themselves in her shoulder blades and causing her to cry out in pain. The villain whirled around to face Dragonfly who, sometime during period of time that Kid Flash had engaged Sparks, had managed to recover enough energy to pull herself up to her knees and throw the knives. Kid Flash quickly used the distraction to his advantage and flashed past the villainess to grab Dragonfly. He grabbed just in time to prevent Dragonfly from getting hit with another lightning bolt and then sprinted away with the dark haired girl still in his arms.

"So, did you know her?"

"No."

"Do you know why she's after you?"

"No."

"Do you know anything about what just happened?"

"Not really."

"Well, that's just great," the speedster sighed as he skidded to a stop in yet another secluded ally. He gently propped Dragonfly up against the wall, before plopping down on the ground beside her with a sigh.

"Who are you anyway?"

"Dragonfly."

"Why are you in central?"

"I live here."

"Then how come I'm just now seeing you."

"Just moved."

"You don't talk much do you?"

"Not really."

Kid Flash sighed yet again and leaned back against the ally wall with closed eyes. He had absolutely no idea about what to do in this situation. His first thought to get her to a hospital or something to treat the extensive burns that were visible through the tears in her kimono, but he quickly ruled that out as he knew that the hospital would ask way to many questions. He then briefly considered taking her to the Flash, but realized that if he took her took the Flash, he would probably try to convince her to leave the hero business, which he assumed that Dragonfly would not take very well. If she was coming out here willingly there was no way that she was going to give it up easily.

Kid sighed and opened his eyes turning his head slightly to observe the Dragonfly. Her eyes were open, but unfocused, staring off into space. Her breathing was heavy and ragged and she was clutching her side tightly, probably out of pain. Her costume was tattered and singed from the electric shocks and she was radiating an extreme amount of heat which caused Wally to assume she had a fever.

He gazed at her for a few more minutes, trying to discern if she was injured anywhere else when the girl seemed to snap out of her daze and she turned her head to meet his gaze full on, her light grey eyes boring into his.

"uhhh…." Wally stammered, shocked by the intensity of her gaze. "Your injuries are pretty bad.

"…."

"You need to see a doctor, but I can't take you to the hospital and I can't take you to my mentor. Is there anyone who you could ask for help?"

Dragonfly remained silent for a while knowing that there was no one that she could ask for help. A small voice in the back of her head brought to her attention that Black Canary would be willing to help her, but she attempted to dismiss it without thinking about it. Unfortunately, as the pain from the multiple burns all over her body increased she realized quickly that if her burns were not treated quickly she ran the risk of dying.

"Black Canary might help," she finally said to Kid Flash with a sigh.

"You know her."

"She offered to mentor me."

"Let me guess you turned her down?"

"Yea."

"Either way, she never would have let you leave without giving you her number. It's probably in your belt."

Dragonfly blinked in shock before reaching into her belt. Sure enough there, in the same pouch as her knives, was a slip of paper with a phone number on it. The dark haired hero took a second to wonder how Black Canary had slipped the paper into her belt before punching the number into her iPhone and handing it off the red headed hero next to her. Her breathing had gotten worse with the small action and while Kid Flash was talking with Black Canary she closed her eyes and began to meditate to help block out the pain.

By the time Canary arrived she had fallen asleep and her head had slipped a little, so that it was resting on Kid Flashes shoulder. Black Canary smiled when she saw the two next to each other, but the closer she got to the two the more her smile faded.

"What happened to her?"

"She was attacked by some electricity controlling meta who had it seriously out for her."

"That doesn't make sense. She shouldn't have any serious enemies. She mainly takes out thugs and minor gangs and those weren't even in Central," Black Canary mused as she and Kid Flash carried the sleeping girl into the blond woman's car.

"Don't tell anybody about this okay Kid?"

"Of course not, beautiful," Kid Flash winked before dashing off and leaving Dragonfly with Black Canary.

Black Canary rolled her eyes and got into her car, her mind focused on why Dragonfly would have an enemy in Central.

"Maybe, there's more to her then I thought," Black Canary mused as she sped off into the night.

* * *

Sparks dropped lightly onto windowsill and balanced there for a moment as she opened the bedroom window. When she finally had it opened, she carefully slipped through the small crack between the windowsill and the window itself into the bedroom, shutting the window softly behind her. The villainess then made her way to her kitchen as she pulled off her mask letting her long dark blonde hair flow easily behind her. She had already set the kettle to boil and was just reaching for a mug on the top shelf when a voice spoke up from behind her.

"I assume your mission was a success."

Sparks did not even flinch at the sound of the voice as she removed the mug from the shelf.

"Of course it was. Who do you think I am?"

"So she is going to take Canary's offer?"

"After what happened tonight she would have to be idiot not to."

"Good."

"So, what's next?" Sparks asked as she poured the boiling water into the mug and set the tea bag in the water.

"For now, we wait and we watch."

"That's my specialty."

"I know. Why do you think I called you in?"

"Because- " Sparks began as she turned around mug in hand only to realize that there was no one there. "

"Show off," she muttered as she headed to the living room.


	6. Training

**A/R**

***Cautiously pokes head out from behind Kid Flash*  
I'm so sorry that it's been a month. I know that it has been far too long, but everything has just been so crazy lately that I haven't gotten a really good chance to write. Anyway, this chapter is finally out and hopefully the wait won't be so long until the next time. And on a side note I'm making plans for a new story (even though I shouldn't be) involving Tye and an OC i'm in the midst of creating. Because Tye is to adorable not to have someone and I've begun thinking up a decent plot for it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter and I would love it if you left a little review at the end. Thanks.**

* * *

**Training**

"Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character."  
― Alan Armstrong

**Unkown Location**

**August 10, 2010**

**Unknown Time**

The minute Dragonfly awoke she was blinded by an abnormally bright light that caused her to promptly shut her eyes and delve underneath the pile of sheets on top of her. She remained underneath the sheets for quite awhile to give herself a bit time to process the situation she was in. Dragonfly could easily deduce that she was with Black Canary somewhere, most likely some secret bunker in Star City, since that was where the hero usually patrolled.

She also assumed that it was still the tenth as she was certain that Canary would have returned her home if it was later than that.

The fourteen year old was also aware of somebody moving around in the bunker and since she had not noticed anyone in the room with her during the brief second she had to see the room she concluded that there was at least one other room attached to the one she was in and it gave her a sense of security to know that there was a way for her to escape if needed.

As she lay there she could hear the footsteps moving closer to her and closer before they stopped, presumably at the edge of the bed she was on, plunging the room into silence.

"So, you're awake then,"a voice said that Dragonfly recognized to be Canary's and as a result poked her head out from underneath the sheets, just to affirm that it was Canary before emerging completely.

Canary raised an eyebrow at her cautious nature before turning her attention to the many bandages wrapped around the young girl. Meanwhile, Dragonfly was observing the room she was in thoroughly, noting the various weapons hanging on the wall across from her. That side of the room seemed to be devoted to weaponry as there were many other weapons stacked on the floor below the wall. The side she was on seemed to be a makeshift infirmary judging from the many medical supplies stacked around her side of the room. There was a little side table next to the bed she was on with her kimono and whip on it. After noticing this Dragonfly looked down at herself realizing that her entire stomach was wrapped in bandages that only stopped at the edge of the sports bra she had on.

"How do you feel?"

"Better than before."

"Good that means that it worked."

"What worked?" Dragonfly asked as she pushed herself into a sitting position.

"The potion Zatara gave me. It was supposed to heal most of your injuries and judging by the fact that you can sit without assistance I'd say it worked. Of course you're still going to need recovery time. I wouldn't do any hero work for two to three days. Four if you want a really good recovery."

"I'll stick with three," Dragonfly said with a sigh looking down at the bandages wrapped around her stomach and arms.

"Do what you think is best. But I think we need to have a talk."

"About my decision tonight."

"Yes," Black Canary stated sitting on the edge of the bed Dragonfly was sitting on. "Look I get that you don't want to be controlled by me, but you need to face the facts here. You need better training then what you have now. Just look at what happened tonight, you could have died with the injuries you gained. If you work with me we can prevent things like this from happening. And trust me, I'm not going to try an control you."

Dragonfly stared stubbornly down at her bandages as Canary talked, her jaw clenching tightly throughout the speech. The black haired girl knew Black Canary was right. She needed better training and Black Canary was the best person to do that. At the same time though, she hated to change her mind after she made a decision. To her wavering from a decision was a weakness, one she hated giving into. However, Dragonfly knew that this was not the right time to let her stubbornness get the best of her and sighed deeply as she unclenched her jaw

"When do we start?" Dragonfly asked, glancing up at the blonde woman perched on the edge of the bed through the corner of her eyes.

"The fourteenth. I'll pick you up after school," Black Canary said, grinning smugly as she stood up.

"Okay."

"Don't wear sweatpants, where something close fitting. Sweatpants will bag you down."

"Got it."

"Good. Now, I'd get home before your dad realizes your missing."

Dragonfly eyes widened at the mention of her Dad before she hung her head.

"You know who I am don't you?" she murmured softly.

"Of course."

"And you still want me as your protégé? I mean I'm a socially awkward loner who can barely even interact with others. That's not exactly hero material," Dragonfly sighed swinging her feet over the edge of the bed.

"I could care less about how you interact with people. I care more about what you do in the field because as far as I'm concerned that's what really makes you hero material," Black Canary said as she sauntered out of the room.

"Now go home and sleep. This bunker is right in the middle of the big arch in Central City. The door on the left will put you out right behind the arch. I assume you have enough strength to get yourself to the J-tech building.

"Yea," Dragonfly said shrugging her kimono back on.

"Good, see you on the fourteenth. Don't forget."

"I won't," Dragonfly responded as she walked through the door Black Canary indicated. True to her word the door let her out right behind the arch in the center of town. From there she used her whip to swing herself over the town square and onto the top of a nearby building. She ran quickly across the roof to gain momentum before she swung herself over to the J-Tech building and let herself in through her room's balcony.

She collapsed onto her bed the moment she entered the room and stared up at the ceiling for awhile thinking about her deal with Canary. Natsuki somehow felt that she would be regretting her decision the minute the first training session took place as she thought back to the somewhat devious smile Canary had at the mention of training. After deciding that thinking about the decision made no diffrence as she was going to fo through with it either way, Suki sighed and rolled over onto her stomach, determined to get some sleep before she had to go school.

* * *

**Central City, Missouri**

**August 14, 2010**

**12:10 CTD**

Natsuki sat down quietly at Wally's table in the lunchroom, desperately trying not to attract the attention of the red headed boy who was in the middle of what appeared to be an important debated with Jack and Jace, the two twins who sat at their table. However, her efforts to remain unseen were in vain as withing seconds of taking her place at the table, Wally pulled away from the debate to address the black haired girl.

"Hey, Suki! What's up?"

"Nothing really," Suki murmured hesitantly as she picked at the salad on her tray. Her actions drew Wally's gaze to her tray and he wrinkled his nose in disgust at the salad.

"Why do you eat salad so much?"

"To stay healthy?"

"I'm perfectly healthy and I don't eat salad like ever."

"Well not everyone has a totally ridiculous metabolism, Wally," a voice interjected drawing the attention of everyone at the table.

"Charlie! You've deigned to join us in this dimension. How was la la land? Did you bring me back a unicorn?"

"I was going to, but I realized that you would kill it within a couple days so I left it in la la land," Charlie responded calmly as she began to eat her lunch. Her effortless retort to Wally's teasing brought a small smile to Natsuki's face, much to the shock of the two others at the table.

"Suki!" one of the twins exclaimed, gaining the attention of Wally and Charlie.

"You just smiled!" the other continued in amazement.

"I do that," Suki said. "You don't have to be so shocked about it."

"But we've never seen you smile."

"So, just because you haven't seen something, you assume that it never happens...uhh...Jack?" Suki said, looking at the twins challengingly before she realized what she was doing and looked away, blushing slightly.

"I'm Jace," responded the dark skinned boy blankly, unable to come up with a suitable response.

"Errr…thanks?"

"No way!" Charlie exclaimed, breaking into the conversation. "You shocked them into shutting up! Okay, it's official, you are my new best friend."

After this declaration, Charlie promptly latched on to Suki and began running her mouth a mile a minute much to the shock of the dark haired girl who was not sure about what to do with the girl. She looked over to Wally for help, but found that he was once again arguing with the twins about something and the other and not paying the least bit attention to her or the person attached her. Suki sighed and turned back to Charlie deciding to make an attempt to listen to the girl's rambling while wondering why she had decided to stay with this crazy batch of people

* * *

**Central City, Missouri**

**August 14, 2010**

**14:34 CTD**

Suki had managed to make it out of the school building in record time, considering it usually took her a good ten minutes to finish packing up and another five to avoid the crowd of people that flowed out the door the minute the bell rung. This day however was very different from those as today was her first day of training with Black Canary and she was itching to get started. Suki had managed to contain her excitement during school and had kept up her calm exterior troughout the day, though she suspected Wally had seen through her…mask, so to speak.

However, the young girl barely cared about her speculations at the moment as she rushed through the crowd on her way to the parent pick up. For a brief moment she worried about how Black Canary was going to know what school she went to, a worry that was solved the minute she finally reached parent pick up and saw a sleek, black convertible with a very familiar blonde in the drivers seat. Suki quickly sneaked into the backseat of vehicle as she did not want to draw more attention to herself, and she would have gotten in unnoticed by Black Canary if her hand had not slipped when she was closing the door.

"That was impressive," Black Canary admitted looking back at Suki. "You ready for training?"

Suki nodded her head without hesitation before speaking up, "I'm ready."

"Good," Black Canary smirked as she stepped on the gas sending the vehicle rocketing forward and Suki flying backwards as she had yet to put on her seatbelt. The small Asian girl wrestled her seatbelt on quickly as Black Canary sped through Centrals streets, completely disregarding the speed limits. The woman's reckless way of driving terrified Suki, who immediately slipped on her headphones and closed her eyes, trying to forget the fact that she was hurtling through Central at an insane speed. She did not say a word until the car stopped and even then she was hesitant to open her eyes, waiting until she heard Black Canary's informing her that they were there.

When Natsuki finally opened her eyes, she found that Black Canary had parked just outside of the circle in the middle of town and assumed that they were going to the same place she had been treated four days prior. Natsuki hopped out of the car after Black Canary and followed the woman to the back of the sculpture in the center of town, taking the same set of stairs into the medical room she had been in before. This time however, Black Canary led her to a room beyond the infirmary.

In the center of the room was an electronic sparring pad, which was surrounded by a large variety of training equipment that included gymnastics equipment, targets and fighting dummies. Everything was arranged by their respective purposes, which meant that the gymnastic stuff took up one section of the room, the targets another and so on. Suki followed Black Canary to the gymnastic section of the room and stood there patiently while the woman pulled out some mats, awaiting orders on what to do next.

"The first thing you are going to learn is the basics of gymnastics. I've noticed that you only use hand to hand combat in battle which is okay, but gymnastics will help improve your fighting technique and your agility making it easier to dodge and to find openings to attack your opponent," Black Canary said after she finished laying down the mats.

"The first thing we are going to do are some basic stretches to get warmed up."

Suki easily followed Canary through the various stretches until she was eventually resting on the ground in a butterfly position.

"The first trick we are going to learn is a backwards roll. It's a pretty simple trick, but it can be quite useful in the field for dodging attacks," Black Canary explained. "The first thing I want to you do is change your sitting position so that you're in a mid sit up position." Suki shifted accordingly and then looked to Black Canary for further instructions.

"Okay, now when you do this trick you need to focus on your hands and your feet because at first you are just letting yourself roll back, but then you need to put your hands down and push to get you over and you need to land on your feet not your knees as landing on your knees is a bad habit to get into," the blonde said before executing an effortless and flawless backwards roll and landing in a standing position. "Now, you try."

Natsuki attempted the trick cautiously, letting herself roll onto her back before pushing off with her arms to complete the three sixty. She managed to make it all the way over, but landed fully on her knees.

"That was okay," commented Black Canary. "Make sure to tuck your legs in and don't use too much force. Do it again."

Natsuki and Black Canary continued with this sort of thing for about an hour before switching to hand to hand combat during which Suki was thoroughly beaten by the older woman although the blonde did commend her on her basic skills saying that not having to reteach her the basics saved her a lot of time. From there, Black Canary proceeded to teach her about the most effective places to hit an opponent, even giving the girl a book and instructing her to read as much of it as possible before their lesson the next day.

That was their final lesson of the day and when Suki left the bunker alongside Black Canary, who had instructed her to call her Dinah in public; she was sore, battered, and extremely tired. She was so tired that she fell asleep in Dinah's car a few moments after she entered, not even taking the time to turn back on her music. Unfortunately, she was woken up soon after as the J-Tech building was quite close to the bunker and was forced to climb out of the car, after giving a sleepy goodbye to Black Canary. Upon entering the J-tech building, she headed up to the penthouse via the elevator and immediately retreated to her room, where she quickly completed her homework before she collapsed on her bed, to worn out to do anything else.


	7. The Tower

**A/N**

**Hey guys, I know it's been awhile, but I've finally found the time to finish off this chapter. This chapter is where we finally meet the Team minus Robin and it takes place during the events of Denial. I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Tower**

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."  
― W.B. Yeats

**Central City, Missouri**

**August 18, 2010**

**18:31 EDT**

Natsuki had only started her training with Black Canary four days ago and she could

already see herself improving. She tired less easily in battle and her movements were more simple and compact with less unnecessary movements, allowing her to take down an opponent faster and more effeciantly. The girl was still struggling a little with the gymnastics part of her training as many of the moves were very unfamiliar to her, but she was slowly but surely making progress much the happiness of her mentor who was thrilled with Dragonfly's progress.

Natsuki had also used the training time to get a better grip on her mentors personality and

abilities. Abilitywise Dinah was relatively easy to figure out, her martial arts skills were impeccable and had been worked on almost to the point of perfection and when combined with her infamous "Canary Cry" the woman was quite the force to be reckoned with despite what others said. Her personality was a bit harder to decipher due to the ever confident appearance she held up at all times. However, Dragonfly soon came to realize that behind all the confidence Black Canary was actually really sweet and caring all though she always made sure to get straight to the point at all times and told everybody everything upfront something the young hero admired about her mentor. Especially when the blonde women dragged her into interesting situations. For example, right now the two were trekking through the back alleyways of Central looking for a blue telephone booth that was supposed teleport them to some cave through what Black Canary called a Zeta-Beam.

"How does this thing work?" Dragonfly asked somewhat nervously, as the idea of having

her body broken down and reassembled somewhere else was not really her idea of a good time.

"I'm don't know the details, I'm not exactly a technical genius after all. However, it's

perfectly safe, the League uses it all the time and there have never been any problems."

"So, I'm not going to materialize in this "Cave" missing a finger," Dragonfly inquired.

"No. And the cave that I mentioned earlier is actually Mount Justice. It is the base of

operations for The Team. It's a cove-ops team for young heroes like you. I'm their combat trainer and I felt to need to introduce you to the team today since you'll most likely be working with them in the future.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I'm not very good with people."

"That's why this will be good for you. You need to interact with people more."

"I interact with plenty of people," Dragonfly protested, think about Wally's little band of

friends who had easily accepted her presence among them, despite her obvious lack of social skills.

"You may sit with them at lunch, but you only talk to Wally and he always has to instigate the conversation," Black Canary pointed out as they approached the light blue telephone box. "Okay, so I'm going to teleport to the cave first so that I can imput you into the system. Just step into the yellow light when it appears in the box and you'll be fine."

"Okay," Dragonfly responded and with that Black Canary stepped into the police box and muttered something the young hero could not hear before she disappeared in a burst yellow light. Moment later a similar ray of yellow light appeared before Dragonfly who looked at it nervously before stepping into the yellow light, anxiously waiting for the teleportation to take place. Soon enough, an unusual sensation coursed throughout her whole body as the girl experienced a brief feeling of weightlessness before feeling cold metal ground underneath her feet. Dragonfly pried her eyes open to take in the room in front of her while shaking off the dizziness that came from teleportation.

"You okay?" Black Canary asked, as she approached Dragonfly who was swaying a little.

"I'm fine," she replied, putting a hand to her head and she blinked a few times at the ground to get rid of the spots dotting her vision. "Just a bit dizzy."

"The Zeta-Tubes do that when you first teleport," a familiar voice interjected shocking the dark haired girl and causing her to snap her head up sharply as she scanned the immediate area for the owner of the voice. After pinpointing the voice, Dragonfly's grey eyes widened in shock as she stared into the very familiar face of Wally West. She stared blankly at Wally for a moment not even noticing the crowd of people gathering behind him in her shock.

"Hey! Do you not remember me?" Wally inquired, appearing in front of the shocked hero. "I'm Kid Flash. You know the one who saved you from crazy lightning chick."

"I remember," Dragonfly murmured quietly unable to process anything beside the fact that her new self-proclaimed friend was the infamous protégé of _the _Flash. "Erm…nice to see you again."

"Are you joining the team?"

"Well-"

"She will be eventually," Black Canary cut in, causing Dragonfly to snap out of her stupor and notice the people gathered behind the red headed speedster. To the left of Wally was a green girl dressed in what looked like sixties clothing, and right behind her was raven haired boy with piercing blue eyes and clearly defined muscles, who looked to Dragonfly like a mini-version of Superman. To the right was a dark skinned boy with blonde hair who was wearing dark blue pants with a red vest and seemed to have gills on his neck, something that seriously confused the dark haired girl. Standing behind them, close enough to be associated with the group of teen, but far away enough that it was clear she was not fully comfortable being with the team, was a blonde who was wearing jeans with a simple white t-shirt and a jacket. Dragonfly eyes flickered back and forth between the group members before finally focusing on Black Canary and the redhead standing next to her.

"Team, this is Dragonfly," Black Canary announced. "She's my new partner and will most likely be joining the team later on which is why I brought her here for training. Dragonfly?"

"Erm… hi?" she said, giving a short wave to the heroes in front of her. "Nice to meet you."

"Hi," the green girl exclaimed, floating forward to shake Dragonfly's hand. "I'm Miss. Martian, but outside of missions I'm just M'gann or Megan."

"Okay," Dragonfly said noting that the girl was in fact a Martian, which explained the oddly colored skin.

"This is Superboy," she said, gesturing to the mini-superman next to her who waved disinterestedly at Dragonfly. "The girl over there is Artemis and the boy next to her is Aqualad, he's The Team's leader. Robin, Batman's protégé is also on the team, but he had some business to take care of in Gotham and couldn't make it. And you've already met Kid Flash so, yeah." She finished grinning at Dragonfly.

"Welcome to the Team," Aqualad said calmly sticking his hand.

"Thanks, Aqualad," Dragonfly said hesitantly as she lightly took Aqualad's hand.

"The rest of the Team usually refers to me as Kaldur, when we're not on mission. You are more than welcome to do so also."

"Okay."

"And you can call me Wally," Kid Flash piped up, flashing over to stand beside Dragonfly. "What can we call you?"

"Dragonfly," the girl responded immediately not even taking the time to think about the answer. She had decided even before she met the Team that she did not want anyone to know her secret I.D, simply because she did not want even the slightest risk of letting it get out and put her father in danger. Despite their rather broken relationship, she could not imagine what life would be like if something happened to him. This decision was cemented in even furthur with the revelation that Wally was Kid Flash as she did not want people to know how weak she was once she took off the mask.

"I was talking about your real name."

"You can call me Dragonfly."

"Dragonfly doesn't want her name getting out for her families sake," Black Canary explain cutting off Wally who had opened his mouth to make another remark. "Anyways, let's get to business. Wally, I want you and Kaldur sparring on the holoscreen, M'gann, I want you and Artemis sparring as well, off the screen, Superboy your with me and Dragonfly run through your regular gymnastics routine, before doing some target practice. I'll pair you up with a member of the team to spar later on."

"Got it," chorused the Team together as they headed towards the training room, while the black haired hero followed behind silently, taking in the cave through curious eyes.

They all set to work the minute they set foot in the training room, and Dragonfly was no exception as she ran through each of the moves she and Black Canary had been practicing, before attempting to master a back- walkover. She ran through it multiple times against the wall with ease, but the minute she tried it without the wall, she either flopped or had not gotten enough energy to push herself over. She kept at it though; continuously going back and forth from the wall to plain ground before deciding that it was time to do some target practice.

When she got to the target zone she saw Artemis, bow in hand, shooting at the targets with ease. The blonde girl looked up when she approached and fixed Dragonfly with a serious stare before turning back to her shooting. Dragonfly, decided to ignore the look that Artemis had given her and set to work with her knives, throwing each of them with extreme accuracy at the target, quickly getting lost in her own world, not noticing the impressed gaze of the blonde beside her.

"Nice," Artemis commented when Dragonfly finally broke her intense concentration. "You've got near perfect aim."

"Thanks. Same to you," Dragonfly replied nodding to the arrows protruding from the center of the target.

"Artemis, Dragonfly," called Black Canary from across the room. "I want you guys to spar. Hand to hand combat, no weapons."

"It'll be my pleasure," Artemis smirked, casting a glance at Dragonfly. "I'd love to test out the new girl."

Dragonfly followed behind her quietly as she led the 14 year to the holo-screen and stepped onto it confidently before turning to look at Dragonfly expectantly. The raven haired girl stepped on after her and took a fighting stance opposite her while Black Canary stood off to the side with the rest of the Team.

"Good Luck Dragonfly," Wally called flashing up to the edge of the holo-screen, "You can so take her. She's-"

"Go," Black Canary stating cutting off Wally's encouragement.

And with that Artemis was instantly on top on Dragonfly sending a rapid sequence of punches and kicks towards her face. Dragonfly instantly went into defense mode, easily parrying and blocking the punches Artemis sent her way. She tried to attack Artemis with a left hook, but Artemis smashed her foot into Dragonfly chest and sent her stumbling back. Dragonfly regained her balance just in time to block Artemis' right punch and return the kick, smashing her own foot into Artemis' stomach. She quickly followed the attack with a karate chop to the neck, but Artemis' ducked under her arm and delivered an uppercut the stomach, temporarily knocking the wind out of Dragonfly. Dragonfly grabbed Artemis' hand before she could move away and slammed her elbow into her solar plexus before shuffling back to take a breath. The pair continued like that for a while exchanging punches and kicks before Dragonfly made the mistake of trying to grab Artemis' right shoulder to spin her around. Artemis immediately pinned Dragonfly's hand to her shoulder and circled her arm and leg over Dragonfly's, so that her elbow smashed into Dragonfly's arm and her leg was directly behind the girls. Artemis then quickly shot her arm out and her leg back sending Dragonfly falling to the ground. However, the black haired hero decided to pull out some of her new moves from training and instead of collapsing to the ground, went into a backward roll before popping up and attacking Artemis again with a kick to the face. The blonde hero brought up an arm and blocked the kick, only to hit by three punches in rapid succession, one to the face, one the ribs, and one to the stomach. Artemis skidded back a bit, and once she regained her balance she went back on the attack, grabbing Dragonfly's leg when the girl once again attempted to kick her and twisting it so that her opponent lost her balance and fell to the ground.

"Fail, Dragonfly," the electronic voice announced loudly as Artemis walked over to Dragonfly with a smirk, holding out her hand. Irritated by her loss and angered by Artemis' smug look, the fourteen year old grabbed her hand and pulled her to the ground and then rolled over and pinned her to the ground.

"Fail, Artemis," the electronic voice announced, while Dragonfly smirked underneath her mask before she realized what she had done and jumped to her feet. Artemis got up after Dragonfly and offered the girl a genuine smile, her hazel eyes sparkling pleasantly.

"Nice trick there," the blonde remark, "I respect that. I think you'll fit in really well here."

"Thanks," Dragonfly replied softly."

"Okay you two. It's nice to see you bonding, but let's give others a chance to spar. You've been going at it for quite a long time. M'gann, you and Kaldur are up next. Get ready," Black Canary instructed ushering the two off the holo-screen.

"Where is Kaldur from," Dragonfly asked Artemis as they walked off to the side.

"Atlantis," Artemis said.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard right. Atlantis is real and Kaldur over here is one of its citizens. Which is why he has the gills and everything."

A soft "oh" was the only response Dragonfly was capable of producing that point as she glanced back and forth between Kaldur and Artemis.

"You think that's shocking," Wally exclaimed, appearing beside Dragonfly with a bag of chips in hand. "Superboy is Superman's clone."

"Clone," Dragonfly echoed blankly, turning to look at the aforementioned hero.

"Yep, Kaldur, Rob, and I found him in a Cadmus Lab we were investigating-"

"Without Justice League permission," Artemis interjected.

"And we broke him out-"

"Bringing down the entire Cadmus building."

"Will you stop that?"

"Stop what, Baywatch?"

"Interrupting me _Arty."_

"Call me that again and see what happens."

"And you wonder why I don't like you."

"It's clearly because your jealous."

"Of you!" Wally laughed, "More like you are jealous of me and my mad skills."

"Mad Skills? You mean your ability to fail at flirting with every girl in sight."

"I don't hit on you," Wally retorted.

"I don't want you to," Artemis snapped placing a hand on her hip.

"Pfftt. Suuuure you don't."

"What are you insinuating?"

"Insinuating...big word. Are you sure you know what that means?"

"Of course I do because I'm not an idiot unlike you."

"I'm the idiot! You-"

"Will you two both shut up!" growled Superboy who had been growing more and more irritated as the conversation had grown up. Artemis and Wally glanced over to where he was leaning against the wall, before they both rolled their eyes simultaneously and turned away from each with crossed arms just as Dragonfly tuned back into the conversation. She had zoned out the minute Wally and Artemis had started talking, as she tried to process the information that had just been given to her and as a result was extremely confused when she noticed to the tension between the two.

"Erm…Did I miss something?"

"Wally and Artemis had a fight," Superboy responded gruffly. "You'll get used to it. It happens a lot."

"Okay?" Dragonfly drawled before turning her attention back to the holo-screen to watch M'gann and Kaldur spar.

* * *

Later Dragonfly was hanging out by the holo-screen with Megan and Artemis watching Superboy and Kaldur spar, yet again. Black Canary had left a couple minutes earlier, leaving her protégé with the instructions to "bond" with the three girls were actually "bonding" quite nicely over typical girl talk, even though most of the talking was coming from Artemis and Megan. Of course, as was typical with girls, the talk quickly changed to the topic of boys as Artemis began giving Megan dating suggestions.

"Kaldur's...uh...nice don't you think? Handsome, commanding, you should totally ask him out," Artemis suggested as she crossed her arms.

"He's like a big brother to me," Megan responded sweetly"But you know who would make the cutest couple. You and Wally. You're so full of passion and he's so full of...uh...of..."Megan trailed off.

"It," Artemis stated before they both broke into peals of laughter. Dragonfly smiled a bit underneath her mask and the sparkle that appeared in her eyes let her two companions know that had enjoyed the joke just a much as they had.

"What about you Dragonfly?" Megan asked.

"Me?"

"Yeah, do you have a special someone?" Artemis waggled her eyes suggestively.

"No," Dragonfly said intending to leave it that as she usually would, but she somehow found herself elaborating on her words with a shrug."Guys don't go for me."

"Their loss," Artemis replied rolling her eyes. Dragonfly blinked at her in shock, not able to believe that someone would actually say that about her.

"Do you mean that?" she asked hesitantly, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Of course. You seem like a sweet girl, even with the crazy fighting skills," Artemis replied causing Dragonfly to grin happily under her mask.

"Thanks," she murmured just as Superboy managed to flip Kaldur over his shoulder causing him to fall heavily onto the holo-screen.

"Fail, Aqualad," the electronic voice said while Superboy stood up triumphantly dusting his hands off.

"Black Canary taught me that," he told Aqualad, smirking, just as Red Tornado, or at least who Dragonfly thought was Red Tornado, descended from a hole above the holo-screen that she had not noticed before. He started to walk out of the room, but before he could make it out Wally ran in front of him.

"Do you have a mission for us?" he asked eagerly while Dragonfly racked her brain trying to puzzle out the reason for Red Tornado being there.

"He's our Den Mother," Megan whispered to Dragonfly, sensing her confusion. "He's supposed to monitor us when we're not on missions."

"Got it," Dragonfly whispered back nodding her head.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's job," Red Tornado informed Wally emotionlessly.

"Yea, but _The_ Batman is with_ The_ Robin doing the Dynamic Duo thing in Gotham, but your headed somewhere right?" Wally asked slyly while the rest of the team gathered behind him. "Hot date or a mission?"

"Why would an android be going on a date?" Artemis questioned Dragonfly her voice blocking out Kaldur's words.

"Maybe he met another machine, you know android love." Dragonfly shrugged in response while watching Red Tornado pull up a file of a kind looking elderly gentleman. Artemis laughed quietly at the girl's response, slapping a hand over her mouth.

"Great deductive skills."

"Hey, I didn't say I was Sherlock Holmes."

"This is Kent Nelson, a friend. He is one hundred and six years old," Red Tornado stated, drawing the girls' attention back to him.

"The guy doesn't look a day over ninety," Wally whispered to Dragonfly.

"He has been missing for 23 days," Red Tornado continued. "Kent was a charter member of the Justice League Society, the precursor to your mentors Justice League."

"Of course," Kaldur exclaimed. "Kent was the sorcerer supreme. He was Doctor Fate."

"More like Doctor Fake," Wally snorted leaning over to talk to Dragonfly. "Learns a little advanced science then Dumbledore's it up to scare the bad guys and impress the babes."

Dragonfly raised an eyebrow at his comment wondering at his evident hatred for magic and almost questioned him about it, but decided not to at the last minute since it was probably something personal, meaning that it was none of her business.

"Kent could just be on one of his walkabouts, but he is caretaker to the Helmet of Fate, the source of The Doctor's mystic might and it is unwise to leave such power unguarded."

"He's like the great sorcerer priest and priestesses on Mars. I would be honored to help find him," Megan said stepping towards Tornado.

"Because that bit of information wasn't overwhelming," Dragonfly muttered to Artemis as she was yet again suddenly informed of things that should not exist.

"Tell me about it. I mean 106 year old men, magic, mars magic. Can't we do something normal?" Artemis complained quietly.

"Agreed," Dragonfly said, but it was drowned out by the sound of Wally shouting, "Me too!"

"So honored I can barely stand it. Magic rocks!" Wally exclaimed with false excitement causing Dragonfly to nearly choke on nothing at his sudden change of attitude.

"Did I miss something?" Dragonfly asked Artemis.

"Nope. That's just Wally sucking up to Megan as usual," she responded crossing her arms.

"Wally likes Megan?"

"Big time. He's been flirting with her for ages. You get used to it." Dragonfly watched as the female Martian and the speedster interacted with a slightly sinking feeling in her stomach, before abruptly turning away to catch up with Artemis who had started to walk out of the room while Dragonfly was out of it.

"Where are we going?" Dragonfly asked as she fell in step with Artemis.

"Weren't you paying attention? We're taking the bioship to the Tower of Fate."

"Bioship?"

"You'll see soon enough."

* * *

Dragonfly sat calmly in the seat next to Artemis going over the fact that a bioship was a Martian airplane that could shapeshift, was controlled by one's mind, and was techically living. Dragonfly mentally buried her face in her hands and tried to regain at least an ounce of composure as all of the recently acquired knowledge she had gained at the Cave was chaotically swirling around in her head. She leaned back in her seat as the bioship descended, having sucessfully quenched the rampant thoughts, which were now locked in a mental box in the back of her mind.

The team all filed out of the bioship as the landed and took a look around the field next to the parking lot they had set down, seeing absolutely nothing.

"This is where the Tower of Fate's supposed to be?" questioned Superboy. "There's nothing here."

"Probably a cloaking device," said Kid Flash who had mysteriously appeared beside Dragonfly yet again. "Let me take a look around." The speedster quickly pulled on his goggles and zipped off leaving the rest of us in the dust. He was back in less than a minute skidding to a stop in front of Dragonfly.

"Nothing," he stated. "This isn't simple camouflage.

"So what do you think? Adaptive micro-opto electronics combined with faze shifting,"

the female hero remarked pulling out her iPod to scan the area for heat signatures.

"Yes! Another tech person on the team, score!" Kid exclaimed excitedly.

"And absolutely... not. Clearly mystic powers are at work here," he finished as Megan walked up.

"Really, Kid, Really?" exclaimed Artemis who had been standing right beside Dragonfly watching the proceedings.

"I think he's right though," Dragonfly inputted, drawing the Teams attention to her. "I'm not picking up on any type of radiation here. No radio, heat, infrared nothing. My phone isn't even picking up our heat signatures." The team looked at her shocked as she flipped through different screens on her phone, and when she looked up and noticed the stares, the girl looked at all of them nervously.

"I made a few adjustments," she explained, guesturing to her phone.

"A test of faith," Aqualad stated, easily cutting through the amazed stares the Team was giving Dragonfly. "Stand behind me."

He walked up to the empty space where the tower was supposed to be and inserted the key in an imaginary keyhole and turned it. Instantly, a large gothic tower materialized in front of the group, amazing most of the team.

"Whoa," Dragonfly breathed softly as she watched the tower materialize in front of her.

Kaldur pushed in the door and they all walked in behind him, letting the door shut behind them.

"Uh, where'd the door go?" Superboy asked the minute the door shut and Dragonfly turned to see that the door had in fact vanished. However, before anyone could respond, a holographic image of Kent Nelson appeared in front of the group.

"Greetings, you have entered with a key, but the tower does not recognize you," the hologram stated. "Please, state your purpose and intent."

"We are true believers, here to find Doctor Fate," Kid exclaimed falsely causing a frown to appear the holograms face as the floor below the team crumbled and they found themselves falling towards a pit of lava.

Dragondly let out a short scream as she fell before pulling herself together and reaching into her booth to pull out the Sai knife she kept hidden there. She threw the Sai knife with aso much power that it embedded itself deeply into the wall across from her and then pulled out her whip and flicked it towards the knife, allowing the tip to wrap around handle, suspending the terrified fourteen year old safely above the lava. Dragonfly held herself there for a moment to catch her breath, trying to control the fear that was slowly consuming her. Once she managed to get a loose control over her fear she looked up and glanced around to see Megan floating safely above the lava with Wally, Artemis holding Kaldur with her grappling hook, and Superboy using what Dragonfly assumed to be super strength to prevent himself from falling. He managed to stop himself just before landing in the lava though he ended up burning his boots off in the lava.

"Those were my favorite boots," Superboy growled. "This Nelson guy better be worth it."

"Having trouble maintaining altitude," Megan called breathlessly while starting to sink lower and lower into the pit. "I'm so hot."

"You certainly are," Wally said flirtatiously.

"Wally!" Artemis exclaimed angrily and she shifted slightly to accommodate for Kaldur.

"Hey, inches above sizzling death here, I'm entitled to speak my mind!"

"My physiology and M'gann's are susceptible to extreme heat," Kaldur broke in calmly, preventing Artemis from retorting. "We must climb out quickly."

Dragonfly stared at Kaldur with wonder, contemplating how he was able to sound so calm despite the danger they were facing before the sound of crumbling dirt brought her attention to the knife she was hanging from. Which was currently in the process of slowly slipping out of the wall.

"I'm slipping!" Dragonfly exclaimed in a paniced tone as she felt the heat from the lava intensifying.

"Hello Megan!" Miss. Martian shouted breathlessly smacking her head with her hand, "We never truly answered the question."

"Red Tornado sent us to see if and the Helmet were safe," she called up to the hologram.

As soon as she finished the sentence the pit of lava was covered by a metal floor allowing Superboy to drop heavily to the ground. Right after that Dragonfly's sai knife came out of the wall and she fell to the ground landing lightly on her feet, the knife clattering to the ground after her. She quickly tucked the knife and whip back into place and watched as the others lowered themselves to the ground.

"The platform, it should be red hot, but it is cool to the touch," Kaldur said placing a hand on the metal.

"Don't worry Megalicious I got you," Wally soothed at the same time, helping an exhausted Megan to her feet.

"Enough!" Artemis shouted. "Your little impress Megan at all costs game, nearly got us all barbecued."

"When did this become my fault?"

"When you lied to that whatever it was and called yourself a true believer!"

"Wally, you don't believe?" asked Meganwhile Superboy came to stand beside her. Wally looked back and forth between the four teenaged heroes momentarily before throwing his arms up in the air with exasperation.

"Fine, fine I lied about believing in magic. But magic is the real lie,talk about a major low," he snapped.

"I think that Magic and Tech can coexist," interjected Dragonfly softly, while reaching up to re-adjust her ponytail.

"Wally, I studied for a year at the conservatory of sorcery in Atlantis. The mystic arts created the skin icons I use to power my water bearers," contributed Kladur, looking up from his kneeling position on the ground.

"Dude, have you ever heard of bio-electricity? Hey, in primitive cultures fire was once considered magical too. Today it's all just a bunch of tricks," Wally argued.

"You're pretty close minded for a guy who can break the sound barriers in his sneaker," Artemis remarked sassily.

"That's science," Wally explained. "I recreated Flash's laboratory experiment and here I am. Everything can be explained by science."

"That's impressive," Dragonfly said raising an eyebrow.

"You think his theory is impressive!" Artemis exclaimed incredulously.

"No, it's impressive that he recreated Flash's experiment and succeeded so well, most people usually fail when it comes to experiment reacration," the dark haired girl said.

"Thanks," Wally grinned slinging an arm around Dragonfly's shoulder. "Did I mention that I like this girl?" His actions caused a blush to rise to aforemention girl's cheeks and she hastily turned away even though he could not see the blush through her mask.

"Let's test this theory," Aqualad pronounced, reaching down and pulling a trapdoor open.

"Wait! The back draft from the lava will roast us all alive," Wally shouted, but drifted off as he saw the snow that was rising slowly out of the trap door.

"Or not," Dragonfly mumbled as she watched the snowflakes float around the pit.

"It's snow!" Megan exclaimed gleefully reaching a hand out.

"Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" Artemis asked before jumping down the

trapdoor with Dragonfly right behind her. They were followed by the rest of the team, who easily slid down ramp the ice formed. The door dropped them off in the middle of tundra and Dragonfly marvelled at the idea that a blazing hot pit of lava could turn into an ice cold winter wonderland within seconds.

"Well?" Artemis asked after a minute turning to look smugly at Wally

"Ever heard of string theory we're in a pocket dimension," Wally declared.

"Ugh!" Artemis shouted, irritated by his stubbornness.

"What's that?" Megan asked almost simultaneously pointing towards a floating staff that had popped out of nowhere in flash of yellow light.

"Ooh, maybe its Nelson's magic wand," Wally commented sarcastically walking towards it alongside Dragonfly.

"Wait!Don't touch it!" she shouted as she ran after him and tried to pull him away from the staff. She was too late however, and his hand was already on the staff by the time she reached out to pull him back. Her hand rested on his shoulder uselessly as Wally tried to remove fruitlessly tried to remove his hand from the staff. Soon after, when the fourteen year old tried to move away from Wally she found that she was stuck to him as well. The two were completely helpless as they watched the staff begin to radiate bright yellow and float upwards before disapearing in a burst of yellow light with the two heroes.


	8. Magic

**A/N**

**hey guys I am soo sorry that it has been this long since an update. The last two or three months of my school year were crazy with exams, and track, and drill team tryouts and stuff, so I wasn't able to find any time to write. however, I should be writing a lot over the summer and updates should be coming more often. Thanks for putting up with my lateness and thanks to all my new followers and favoriters (yes i know that's not a word)**

**Now! Onto the story**

**Chapter 7: Magic**

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."  
― W.B. Yeats

_Recap: The two were completely helpless as they watched the staff begin to radiate bright yellow and float upwards before disappearing in a burst of yellow light with the two heroes._

Dragonfly and Wally found themselves briefly suspended in a void of darkness, before they were harshly thrust back into reality and dumped unceremoniously on a platform in the middle of a room made out of stairs.

Standing across from them was a Latin looking young man with long, dark brown hair wearing a loose white long-sleeved shirt and black pants and brown haired boy with almost blue looking skin clad in a fancy looking suit and holding a cat in his arms.

In between the two was a bound Kent Nelson who looked at the two cheerfully, not all startled by their sudden appearance.

"Abracadabra!"

"What?" Dragonfly asked, turning her head to look at Wally. "The Latin looking guy with Mr. Nelson. His name is Abracadabra," Wally explained.

"That's cliché," muttered Dragonfly as Wally pulled the two to their knees even though both of their hands were still grasping the staff

"Well would you look at that," Mr. Nelson exclaimed joyfully as the staff glowed yet again, coating Mr. Nelson golden light.

He then floated towards Dragonfly and Wally and pulled the staff out of their hands, releasing the two heroes from its magic. Kent quickly waved the staff in the air, causing an elevator to appear behind the group.

"In here."

Dragonfly nodded her head and immediately dashed into the elevator, pulling Wally behind her while Mr. Nelson followed closely behind.

Kent had just entered the elevator when the pale boy threw a fit and sent a beam of red energy towards them, which Nelson promptly deflected by closing the elevator door.

In the elevator, Wally and Dragonfly stood awkwardly behind Mr. Nelson while calming elevator music played in the background, creating a relaxed ambiance.

"I'm Kent Nelson by the way," Mr. Nelson said conversationally, turning to look at the two heroes.

"No duh," Wally muttered.

"Dragonfly," Dragonfly said politely smiling at him underneath her mask to make up for Wally's rudeness.

Then realizing that Wally didn't plan to introduce himself she pointed to the red head and said, "Wally."

"Well Dragonfly we're up against an opponent with tremendous mystic power," Kent began, before Wally interrupted him.

"Abracadabra? Flash proved he uses futuristic technology to simulate magic. Guys all show and no biz," Wally snorted waving a hand.

"Right you are," Mr. Nelson commended Wally. "Abra is a charlatan, but Klarion the Witch Boy, the kid with the cat, is an actual Lord of Chaos, the ultimate enemy of a Lord of Order like Doctor Fate."

"Right you're a lord of order," Wally said sarcastically causing Dragonfly to elbow him ribs.

Wally looked at Dragonfly incredulously while she simply shot him a look that screamed "be respectful" and turned her attention back to the old man.

"Oh no, not me, I'm just an old coat Fate used to put on until my wife Inza convinced me there could be more to life. She was a real pistol that Inza," Kent sighed looking at image of a beautiful lady that rested in the frame of his pocket watch.

"Anywho, Klarion's after the helmet. If he gets his sticky little mitts on it he'll turn the planet into his own personal playground of pandemonium," Mr. Nelson said as the elevator dinged and the doors opened allowing the three to exit the elevator.

They walked into a room with a huge bell in the center with a pair of stairs circling around it.

Moments after they entered the room a trapdoor appeared in the ceiling dropping Superboy, Kaldur, and Artemis harshly onto the floor while M'gann floated lightly down to the ground.

"Friends of yours?" Kent asked the two heroes before pushing the two kids down the ground as a beam of electric energy flew over their heads.

Dragonfly immediately decided to take the offensive, not liking the idea of getting blasted with electricity yet again and threw multiple exploding knives at the magician, all of which hit their target, sending him reeling back a few steps.

"Friends of yours?" Wally asked Nelson as he grabbed the elderly gentleman and Dragonfly and dragged them near to the bell.

Abracadabra sent out another electric beam that caused the group of three to once again drop to the ground near the bell.

Once they stood up, Kent rung the bell with his staff causing the bell to glow, then he pulled the two heroes into the bell, closely followed by Klarion.

Once again, Dragonfly and Wally passed through the void before landing on top of the tower with the Helmet of Fate floating before them. Kent began to reach for it, but was blasted away with a red energy beam.

"Mr. Nelson!" Wally shouted running to catch the stumbling sorcerer.

Kent took a few seconds to recover his balance, then raised his staff shouting something unintelligible.

He then smashed the staff on the ground creating a glowing force field around himself, the helmet, and Wally, and Dragonfly just in time to block another ray of energy from Klarion.

"Cool," Dragonfly commented looking at the force field with a curious expression.

"NOOO!" Klarion shouted at the same time, rage spreading across his face.

"Not bad for a former Doctor Fake, eh kids," Kent mumbled as he began to fall to the ground. Dragonfly quickly moved to catch him and once she had done so she slowly lowered him to the ground, worry visible in her eyes.

"The bubble will give you just enough time… to do what you need to do," the sorcerer breathed roughly to Wally.

"I have no idea what I need to do!" Wally exclaimed.

"Have faith in what you can't explain. Believe in what you can no longer deny," Kent gasped before his head lolled to side, his eyes slid shut, and the pocket watch in his hand fell to the ground.

Dragonfly instantly put a hand to his neck feeling for any sign of a pulse and found none. In response, she immediately set Mr. Nelson onto the ground and began CPR while Wally counted as he looked over her shoulder.

"Come on," Wally mumbled before his attention shifted to the angry lord of chaos throwing beams of energy at the force field.

"I want that helmet and I want it now!" Klarion growled, punctuating his words with balls of fire.

Wally stood up and looked at the helmet as Dragonfly ceased the compressions with tears in her eyes, knowing that nothing she was doing was helping.

_"Wally, Dragonfly we're in trouble. Tell Kent we need Doctor Fate,"_ M'gann said in Dragonfly's head causing the girl to let out a small squeak as her eyes widened in shock. Wally noticed the reaction and set a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

"It's a telepathic mind link. We use it to keep in touch on missions," Wally explained soothingly right as the link cut off abruptly with a mental scream from M'gann.

The two heroes exchanged a wide-eyed glance before turning to look at the Helmet of Fate.

However, before they had time to act a magic circle surrounded Klarion and a pair of hands made purely out of chaos energy grasped the bubble sinking its claws through the fading energy.

Wally gave a final look down at Kent before muttering a few words.

"A test of faith," Wally said his eyes hardening as the got to his feet and grabbed the helmet.

Dragonfly watched him cautiously, but made no attempt to move knowing that as long as Wally had that look in his eyes, there was nothing she could do to change his mind.

Plus, they needed Doctor Fate and if Kent Nelson was willing to place his trust in Wally, Dragonfly was willing to do the same.

"Hey dumb kid. You put that on you may never get it off," Klarion growled as he tore the bubble away.

Realizing what the sorcerer meant Dragonfly's eyes widened in horror and she immediately moved to snatch the helmet away from Wally.

But, she was too late.

Wally had put the helmet on just before getting blasted by Klarion and his body was consumed by a bright yellow that momentarily blinded the dark haired girl.

When she finally able was able to look up, Wally was wearing a blue one piece suit with golden belt and a golden pair of boots, a golden cape flowing majestically behind him.

No not Wally, Dragonfly had to remind herself as she edged away from the battle.

This was Doctor Fate.

She watched as a huge symbol appeared in front of him blocking the fireballs Klarion was sending his way.

"Give it up Nabu!" Klarion shouted. "Order went out of style in the twentieth century."

"This battle is pointless," Doctor Fate shouted in rough voice that had a hint of Wally underneath it. "You sought to take the helmet before I gained a host, but you are too late."

"Shut it you old fart," Klarion retorted using his magic to break a pillar in half and smash Doctor Fate between the two ends. However, Doctor Fate simply blew the rock up and sent a beam of yellow energy towards the boy.

"Brat," he commented nonchalantly.

Meanwhile, Dragonfly had decided to sneak around the edge of the building figuring that if she was able to catch Klarion off guard with a knife while he was distracted fighting Doctor Fate that it might help improve the situation.

As she sneaked through the shadows, she watched the fight carefully, searching for a moment when she would be able to catch the witch boy off guards.

She saw her opportunity when Klarion momentarily had his back turned to her while releasing energy beams from his mouth.

Without allowing herself a moment of hesitation, she threw her exploding knives towards Klarion's back and watched as the explosion sent the Lord of Chaos crashing into the ground.

Klarion growled in anger and immediately turned on Dragonfly, sending a massive red energy snake after the girl.

Dragonfly dodged the first snake easily, with a simple duck and roll, but Klarion created another one, and then another one, and after dodging a good 10 snakes, once of them finally caught her and wound itself around her bod.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to play with magic?" Klarion sneered clenching his hand so the snake squeezed her body making it harder for Dragonfly to breath.

Dragonfly struggled fruitlessly against the bonds and was about to get blasted with a ray of chaos energy, when Fate sent a massive beam of golden energy at Klarion, causing him to drop her to the ground.

Klarion retaliated by summoning a giant storm cloud that sent a mass of red energy at Doctor Fate, who blocked it with a golden bubble while Dragonfly crept back into the shadows.

"Oooh, rainbow power," Klarion commented with a grin. His cat responded to his comment with placid mewl which caused Klarion to turn his attention to the cat.

"I am paying attention you stupid cat!"

"Meow"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm winning."

Seconds after he said that the bubble Doctor Fate was in exploded, covering the roof in golden light.

When the light died down, Doctor Fate was standing again, a circle of golden fire surrounding him.

"It is difficult for a Lord of Order or Chaos to maintain a presence on a fiscal plain," Fate said, glaring at Klarion.

The Lord of Chaos did not take the comment well and glowed red, before throwing a ball of energy toward Fate who dodged and continued speaking.

"I am bound to the helmet and use a human host," he continued, shooting a ray of golden energy at Klarion. "But that is not your way."

"You're babbling Nabu!"

"Am I?"

Doctor Fate emitted another ray of energy that Klarion expected to hit him, but went straight passed him hitting the boy's cat, head on.

"Teekl!" Klarion screamed. "I can't believe you would assault a defenseless pussy cat!"

"You and I both know that creature is no cat witch boy. And without your familiar, you have no anchor on this reality."

"Bully, Killjoy, GEEZER!" Klarion retorted angrily as he picked up his cat. "We're out of here!"

With that the boy and his cat turned into strands of chaos energy that dissipated into the sky.

Once Dragonfly was sure Klarion was not returning she emerged from the shadows, tentatively approaching the Lord of Order.

"Umm…Doctor Fate?" she questioned hesitantly.

She received no response from the Lord of Order who was staring blankly into space.

Dragonfly sighed, knowing that something was going on in the man's head, something that she was not apart of, and she sat down in front of Doctor Fate, waiting for either Wally or Doctor Fate to return.

She had been waiting for quite awhile when Doctor Fate finally moved, taking off the helmet to reveal Wally.

"Wally!" Dragonfly exclaimed softly, jumping up to hug him before she changed her mind and just stood there awkwardly. "Fate let you go!"

"Yea. It took a little convincing from Kent, but he decided that I wasn't a suitable host."

"Kent?" asked Dragonfly with a raised eyebrow.

"Long story."

"We have time."

"Okay well, after I put on the helmet," Wally began as the two made their way down the stairs, to join their friends.


End file.
